Veronica,
I realize that this comes a bit late but I only just found teh Road Warrior Careers group (although, I have to confess having suggested it some time back . . . including the name of the group :-/ ).
One thing to consider FOR SURE, is whether you will be paid the IRS Per Diem rate (Google "IRS Per Diem"). For instance, I just got offered a gig in Boston, MA, at a rate of $55 to $60 per hour. That sounds pretty good on the surface. However, the IRS Per Diem for Boston is a MINIMUM of $260 PER DAY! (And, that's a 7 day week, not a 5 day.) As a result, that calculates out to roughly $45 per hour for a 40 hour week and that means that the pay is about $10 to $15 after expected expenses.
Another point to consider is "social life impact". For instance, if you are married or single but have a "significant other", a job that advertises 25% travel means that you may either be gone 1 week a month or 3 months at a whack or just 1 year out of 4 . . . and, even in the case of the first 2 options, will the spouse/significant other be comfortable with the arrangements.
Now, if you are single and not "encumbered", the good news is that, if you are in someplace like Boston for 3 months, you can probably see some of the nearlby sights on the weekends and then, if you get sent a couple of months later to someplace like, say, San Antonio, you can see the sights there, too. ;-)
International vs domestic has other concerns. Will you get an expense account that will handle the expenses and will you have to file it weekly (with all manner of detailed receipts)? If, for instance, you are handed an AmEx card that is billed to the company and you can just put your company expenses on it, then great. If you have to use your own credit card and then hope for re-embursement, not so great. I got sent to London once and maxed my credit card the first week due to the cost of the hotel the company put me up in and then my _wife_ started having charges denied on top of _me_ having to get a payment wired to Visa so I wouldn't get thrown out of my room! (The good news was that my credit limit got bumped up pretty high pretty quickly because I was scharging and paying back a few thousand a week! ;-)

Great feedback Ralph. I have had a similar situation where my company card maxed out while on business for a month in San Diego. They had to rush a payment on my card with having 2 more weeks to go!
Good Tip on the IRS per diem. Do you have a link to help others who read this discussion? Sometimes it is not that easy browsing through gov sites.
I am surprised there is not more discussion for this group. There are a lot of tips and tricks out there for road warriors, especially ones new to the game.
Any great tips to add?

As you might guess from the sparsity of my responses (both here and in general :-/ ), I have been kind of busy for a while now.

As for tips for Road Warriors, I was once immediately recognized as a Road Warrior when I was making a flight connection in Dallas. I had book-ended a round-trip flight between DAL and SAT (Love Field in Dallas where I was on contract and San Antonio, TX, where I live) with a vacation flight from DFW to OKC. (Note: "Book-ending" a flight is when you schedule one round-trip reservation within another, e.g. mine was DFW-OKC-DWF within the time frame of my DAL-SAT-DAL reservation). Anyway, I had to get from DFW to Love Field in order to make my cponnection to go back to San Antonio. Taxi fare would have worked out, at the time, to somewhere between $35 and $50, depending on traffic but I could rent a car at DFW and drop it off at DAL for about $21 . . . which is what I did. ;-)

As I walked up to the counter to get the keys to my car, the attendant was reading the reservation slip and, at first, expressed doubt about the pick up and drop off being on the same day . . then he chuckled, looked up, and said, "Road Warrior, rihgt?" When the lady behind me asked what he meant, he told her about the same-day pick up and drop off and then said, "Only a Road Warrior would think to save money by renting a car that way instead of taking a taxi."

So, the tip is: If you have to make a connection between airports or even do a "day-trip" where you fly in and out on the same dya in order to attend a meeting, consider renting a car for the day instead of taking a taxi . . . often you can save a good deal of money. Admittedly, you may be able to expense the taxi fare but you may also have to front the cost and then wait to be re-imbursed . . . and, personally, I'd rather front as little as possible. ;-

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